The government is "ambiguous" about its commitment to academy schools, and is eroding their independence by handing over more control to local authorities, MPs were told today by an academy headteacher.

Academies, set up in 2000 to replace so-called "failing" schools, were given freedom from local authority control. But their autonomy is being eroded because ministers are handing some power over the schools to "under-performing" local authorities, Nick Weller, headteacher of Dixons city academy in Bradford, told MPs on the cross-party Children, Schools and Families select committee.

"In some towns, there is not a great deal of difference between some of the newer academies and the local authority schools," Weller said after the meeting.

He told MPs that current education ministers were less committed to academies than their predecessors, such as Lord Adonis.

Weller said: "There's ambiguity from the top. There is a secretary of state [Ed Balls] who doesn't want to be there and a minister [Vernon Coaker] who has had his doubts about academies.

"A few years ago, [academies] were believed in very passionately [by the government]. They aren't now and I am not sure this will improve after the general election."

Weller, a member of the Independent Academies Association, which represents headteachers and chairs of governors at academies, said his academy, which inspectors have described as "outstanding" now had to "take the lead from its local authority, which has not been judged to be as effective".

Building work and computer resources had to be agreed through the local authority.

He said: "There's less clarity on what is wanted. The [academy] movement is in danger of falling between two stools. Local authorities are very, very mixed. I think they are holding back educational progress in some areas."

Academies usually replace schools that have failed children for years and their local authority may have been part of the problem, he said.

The Conservatives have accused the new schools minister, Vernon Coaker, of opposing academies. Coaker is a member of the National Union of Teachers and the Socialist Education Alliance, both of which oppose academies. Coaker has denied he is against academies and says he does not agree with all NUT and SEA policies.

The government has said it wants at least 400 academies. The Conservatives have pledged to turn hundreds of comprehensives into academies to make them the "norm" of secondary education.

Yesterday the schools secretary, Ed Balls, announced proposals for two new academies in Redcar and Cleveland and Halton, and signed funding agreements for two others in Nottingham and Hertfordshire.

A spokesperson for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "Far from lacking direction, we are accelerating the academies programme. Academies are a key part of our relentless drive to raise standards in deprived areas across the country, and in a relatively short time they have made remarkable progress."